Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
Perspectives on Personality

Last updated:
29 Sep 2003

Conditioning theory can be broken down into 2 types:

Classical
Conditioning

Instrumental /
Operant Conditioning

Classical Conditioning is also called
Pavlovian Conditioning. It explains how a previously neutral
stimulus can come to have a learned effect on someone. This takes
place by pairing (associating) a unconditioned stimulus (which already
produces an unconditioned response) with a neutral stimulus (conditioned
stimulus). In this way, the organism learns to respond to
the conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response which is like the
unconditioned response.

Learned associations
provide the Building Blocks of Behaviour & Personality.

“Most of the likes
and dislikes, the preferences and biases that define one’s personality,
develop through emotional conditioning”

“In sum, it seems
not unreasonable that classical conditioning processes may underlie many
of people’s preferences for persons, events, things, places, and ideas.
Inasmuch as these preferences are important aspects of personality,
conditioning processes would appear to represent important contributors
to human experience.”

- Carver &
Scheier, 2000, p.320

In order for Classical Conditioning to
occur:

Organism must already respond predictably and automatically to a
STIMULUS

Unconditioned Stimulus -> Unconditioned
ResponseUS-> UR

A second stimulus is paired in time and space with the
Unconditioned Stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus -> Conditioned
ResponseCS-> CR

There must already
be a reliable, automatic response whenever a certain stimulus occurs (a
reflex if you like) e.g. if you drink a sharp, acidic wine (US) your
salivary glands start to work (UR). (These reflexes can be innate or
learned in themselves).

The second thing
that’s required is that the stimulus causing the reflexive response must
be associated (in both time and space) with another stimulus. This
stimulus is usually neutral and so wouldn’t in itself cause a particular
reflexive response.

So now the learning can take place. This is when the neutral stimulus
occurs at the same time and place (or it might be just before) as the
original US.

So if you drink
this sharp, acidic wine in the same bar (Joe’s bar) every night you may
come to salivate every time you walk into that bar:

So now JOE’S BAR becomes the
CONDITIONED stimulus (CS) and the SALIVATION is the CONDITIONED response (CR)

Example

Dry wine -> Salivation
US -> UR

Joe’s Bar -> Salivation
CS -> CR

The more often this pairing occurs the more likely that learning will
have taken place. Or if the US is VERY strong e.g.

Chemotherapy ->
nausea
US -> UR

Canberra Hospital
-> nausea
CS -> CR

Once conditioning
i.e. LEARNING has taken place the CS -> CR can go on to function just as
any innate reflex (which is why I said earlier that the reflex can be
innate or learned)

Canberra Hospital -> nausea

Doctor Smith ->
nausea

Example

US-> URKissing -> Feeling Sexy!

CS-> CRParticular Song -> ‘Feeling Sexy!’

= a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Advanced Classical Conditioning Concepts

Discrimination

Generalization

Extinction

I’d just like to
point out SOME but not all of the concepts relating to Classical
Conditioning.

Classical
conditioning provides a mechanism for new responses to become attached
to neutral stimuli. But the CS often doesn’t occur in exactly the same
form as it did earlier and of course you may come across stimuli that
are similar to but not the same as the original CS. So what happens is
that we can DISCRIMINATE on the one hand and GENERALIZE on the other.

For example, you
can of course DISCRIMINATE one bar from another so not all bars may
provoke the same response (as Joe’s bar). On the other hand, if you
walked into a bar that was VERY similar you may get the same response
(CR) i.e salivation. This is known as GENERALIZATION.

Sometimes
conditioned responses go away: this is called EXTINCTION. When a CS come
repeatedly without the US this occurs (so when you go to Joe’s bar all
the time after you’ve gone on the wagon (that is no wine) then you no
longer get the CR (salivation) when you go to Joe’s.

Or when you see Dr
Smith (CS) down at the golf club all the time rather than at Canberra
Hospital (US) – the sight of him will no longer make you vomit! Mind you
he’ll probably still always make you feel slightly queasy!

Emotional Conditioning

previously neutral stimuli can be conditioned to bring about good
or bad feelings

the CRs are emotional reactions

With classical
conditioning many of the stimuli that that lead to reflexive reactions
are stimuli that bring about GOOD or BAD FEELINGS (joy, excitement,
pleasure, fear, anger, pain).

EMOTIONAL
CONDITIONING is the term which refers to classical conditioning where
the CRs are emotional reactions. So you can see how you start to build
up a way of behaving in the world and responding positively or
negatively to certain people, situations, surroundings etc.

Conditioning theorists suggest that most likes and preferences AND
dislikes and biases that DEFINE our personality develop through
EMOTIONAL CONDITIONING.